Indeed it has. It only passes the previous chapter by four pages, but to beat the current page count you have to go all the way back to chapter 18.

So... chapter switch. Will the next one be Ian waking up and this plot thread continuing, Ian not waking up and this plot thread continuing, a jump to Jon and Sarine, or something else? I'd guess that we'll stay with Ian and Meji, but that's just a guess. Someone could probably work out approximately how much time has probably passed for each group since the half elves left and try to determine the answer that way, but it's too much work for me.

A completely non-definitive ending, if indeed the chapter does end here. The Bookies are upset because they now have to carry some bets indefinitely. That's good for them, now they have to open bank accounts and collect the float. They usually don't like banks, especially since gambling is illegal :) and Banks let the LEOs know too much about their cashflow.

The Bookies wrote:

Odds on this being the chapter ending just went from 'no way' to 1:1. While it is fairly certain that the spell was a healing spell, there still isn't much evidence to suport closing the bet. The Bookies are no longer taking bet at any odds and banking the bets pending further evidence.

* New odds of Ian exploding anything after the healing are now at 5300:1This one is closed. The boy can't even light a candle at the moment.

* Side bet - Meji actually showing some tender care, 10:1This one is closed. It was never specific and she did show serious concern for Leah.

* Side bet - Riley being changed to either a full male or a full female by the healing spell, 5200:1This one is suspended pending further developments.

* Side bet - Riley getting pissed-off about the 'cure' 2:1This one is closed. Riley is plenty pissed off about something. We just don't know what.

* Anilis having jumped ship.This one wasn't serious anyway. It's amazing on how many placed their money here though. The Bookies thank everyone that did for their generosity

New bets being taken:1 This is the chapter end; 2:12 The next chapter opens on Jon and Sarine; 3:1.3 The next chapter opens on the Imperatrix getting the failure report. 3:14 The next chapter stays with Ian and Meji 1:3 - unlikely5 The next chapter opens on an entirely new plot development 3:1

Well, they were only able to close three bets and open five more, leaving a few pending.

Looks like Leah is alive (because neither Meji or Riley screamed "SHE'S DEAD!), likewise no clear sign from either witness that she has been mutilated or morphed. All we can say for sure is that she is no longer the most conservatively dressed of the characters. I wonder if her eyesight has improved?

Ian originally just planned to levitate the bottle of cough syrup in his back pocket over to Leah. It didn't go well.

All of these are likely to require a fresh pair of panties for Leah. Labrat will successfully bid on the old pair at auction.

_________________"We are not going to die! And do you know why? Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die. And most of all because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, Butters, and <i>polka will never die!</i>"

Foolish boys...of course he's not going to leave us with resolution. Then where we get the incentive to wade through whatever the next, possibly less-exciting, chapter just to get back to Ian and his "i'm inside you" healing powers?

Poe's a great storyteller. You give the audience something amazing to keep them hanging around while you flesh out some other part of the story, which pleases a different set of the audience. Then you come back to the totally amazing part and WOW everyone again.

Foolish boys...of course he's not going to leave us with resolution. Then where we get the incentive to wade through whatever the next, possibly less-exciting, chapter just to get back to Ian and his "i'm inside you" healing powers?

Poe's a great storyteller. You give the audience something amazing to keep them hanging around while you flesh out some other part of the story, which pleases a different set of the audience. Then you come back to the totally amazing part and WOW everyone again.

Yeah, I want to know what's happening with Sarine/Jon just as much as this story. So when he switches either way, I think "Sweet, I get to find out about this". Damn my weakness.

Actually, there are a lot of other possible sub-threads out there waiting for a bit of attention in the next chapter, other than just the one with Jon and Sarine and Sara. Both the Gewehr and the Ensigerum should be discovering by now that Jon and Sara have disappeared, leaving a dead Warrel in their wake. Since neither know about Sarine, they'll be developing all sorts of merry plans based on bogus information. The elves back in Praenubilus Astu will be mobilizing for something, and it wouldn't surprise me if an unsuspecting, naive Misa (sheesh ... naive and innocent at 1400 years old ... what a concept...) is in the middle of it. Sarna and the as-yet-unseen Inoue might reappear too, in connection with the hunt. I can even imagine a sub-thread involving Bani Igaaru.

I've been absolutely amazed at the way Poe's story-telling skills have improved over the course of this story. This guy is good.

_________________"If you sit down at a poker game and can't see the sucker, get up. You're the sucker."

As I recall, in the movie Cliffhanger, the end wrapped up all the threads of the story quite nicely and left the audience feeling as if the right side had triumphed.

So, why do we call an ending that leaves us wanting more a "Cliffhanger."

I was just wondering about that.

The art in this last comic was quite nice. I like how the speech bubbles get all angular when someone is being emotional or expressing powerful feeling. It's a semi-subtle clue that things are not normal and makes me imagine that the character's voice may be strained and higher pitched. However when you add that to the simply amazing artwork in the comic it really seems to come to life.
Nice work Poe.

Why do we always call it a "Cliffhanger" ending?As I recall, in the movie Cliffhanger, the end wrapped up all the threads of the story quite nicely and left the audience feeling as if the right side had triumphed.

So, why do we call an ending that leaves us wanting more a "Cliffhanger."

I was just wondering about that.

The tile of the movie <i>Cliffhanger</i> was a homage to the expression, which pre-dates it by most of a century.

"Cliffhanger endings" became popular back in the silent movie era, when theaters ran serials of ten or twenty episodes, a new one showing at the theater each week. These were pure actioners for the kids, featuring spies, cowboys, cops, villains, ladies in distress, etc. They liked to show off that new special effect, the "movie stunt," by having someone hurtling to certain death at the end of each episode/chapter. The heroine hanging off a cliff, a cave collapsing on the hero, a building blowing up with most of the cast tied up inside, someone being stabbed in the back, someone having a horrible and apparently fatal reaction to a untested cure for disease. That sort of thing.

Which syllables should be stressed in each version? think the shorter ones flow better. In any event, isn't Ian actually taller than Riley?

_________________"We are not going to die! And do you know why? Because Thomas is too pretty to die. And because I'm too stubborn to die. And most of all because tomorrow is Oktoberfest, Butters, and <i>polka will never die!</i>"

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